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‘Indoor GPS’ to help droids find their feet in the home

By Justin Mullins

ROBOTS will never be much good at household tasks such as pouring coffee or polishing shoes unless they can know their position accurately. But unlike robots that operate outdoors, domestic droids can’t pick up the weak satellite signals from the Global Positioning System, so designers who want to put their creations to work have almost literally hit a brick wall.

But that’s all set to change, courtesy of a new “indoor GPS” system from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of its inventors, Seth Teller, believes it could dramatically improve robots’ performance in homes, shops and offices. …